Kingston construction on schedule

Track, road and sidewalk construction in the Kingston Road Village business area is running on schedule.

Easan Vallipuram, the City of Toronto project manager overseeing the work, says work along the stretch of Kingston Road from Victoria Park Avenue west to Pickering Street should be finished by the third week of August.

Once that is done, Vallipuram said he hopes Kingston Road can be reopened to local traffic up to Scarborough Road or one block further west. He said they may be able to allow parking there in the curb lane.

“The only issue is that some residents on the local streets are already complaining that they have a little excess traffic on their street,” he said. “If you open for local traffic, some people may misuse that as a way to access side streets.”

Vallipuram said the construction crew lost at most a day’s production during the July 8 storm that dropped a record rainfall on Toronto.

“Luckily that didn’t have a big impact on us,” he said, noting that crews also continued to work throughout the heatwave that followed.

Katya Nosko, owner of the Great Escape Bookstore on Kingston Road and a construction liaison for the Kingston Road Village Business Community (KRVBC), says that while every shop owner has been affected differently, the general impression is that the construction crew has been stellar.

“We have stories about the work crews helping older people in wheelchairs into the shop while waiting to pour the concrete until that person comes back out of the shop,” she said. “I haven’t heard any complaints.”

Nosko said Ward 32 Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon helped to arrange a day on August 18, where one lane of Kingston Road will remain closed to traffic after all the work is done so that the KRVBC can host a street party from Victoria Park Avenue to Pickering Street. The party will include games, live music, buskers, kids’ stations and food, she said.

For more information, search for the KRVBC Facebook page.

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